PACIFIC: The Disney-Comcast War is Personal

What's Next: The Disney-Comcast war gets personal. Disney CEO Bob Iger and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts have a deep animus toward one another that is fueling their battle over 21st Century Fox, sources familiar with their relationship tell me. Their intense dislike of one another, dating back to Comcast's hostile takeover attempt of Disney in 2004, means the battle for Fox will be unpredictable and possibly irrational.

Roberts now appears set on stopping Disney from acquiring Fox. His $31 billion counter-offer for Sky -- a "crown jewel" of the Fox assets, as Iger put it -- may just be the penny ante in a gamble that ends with Comcast trying to acquire Fox, our sources said. Today the Wall Street Journal reports that Comcast "is gaming out the possibility of making a public case to Fox's shareholders that they should ... opt for a Comcast tie-up instead."

The Big Picture: Fox and Sky are now pawns in Disney and Comcast's efforts to scale up in a new world where technology, media and telecom have collided and content is the coin of the realm.

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Today's PACIFIC

Good morning from Georgetown.

What Washington is talking about: Kanye West. Benjamin Haddad, a fellow at the Hudson Institute who is traveling with the French delegation, says some members of President Macron's party "have expressed puzzlement" at all the Kanye coverage. We here at PACIFIC think a national debate about a provocative artist espousing "freedom of thought" is actually quite French.

Snap still believes Spectacles are the future. The company has started selling an updated version of the glasses on its website for $150.

The Big Picture: Software companies see hardware as a smart long-term investment, whether that's home assistants or VR headsets. With Spectacles, Snap is diversifying beyond social media and holding firm to its belief that wearable AR technology will be the future norm.

The smartphone market is slowing down due to sluggish demand, suggesting that the current iteration of mobile technology has hit a saturation point. In other words, most people already have the phone they want.

• "With closing arguments expected to conclude on April 30, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes appear likely to get what they want after all."

• "Sources inside both companies are feeling good, if still cautious, about the course the trial has taken over the past two weeks. 'I think AT&T is killing them,' one executive ... told me. 'If you're AT&T, all signs seem to be pointing in the direction of: you're winning.'"

• "In the end, AT&T may have to make minimal concessions surrounding Turner. ... [Judge] Leon could green-light the merger if Turner agrees to make the arbitration agreement even more favorable for distributors."

"The argument for the deal seems to be beside the point," Vanity Fair's William D. Cohan reports. "What seems to be driving Shari Redstone is familial score-settling, a quest for victory over her father."

Today's lesson: Sometimes business is personal.

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